Mirwaiz conveys concern to Pak High Commissioner

However, Mirwaiz accepted the invitation and attended the party at the Pakistani High Commission.

I want to assure you that Pakistan under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif wants good relations with India.

Hurriyat Hardliner Mirwaiz Umar Farooq once again snubbed senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani by attending the Eid Milan Seminar hosted by Pakistan envoy to India Abdul Basit here on Tuesday. “We see a glimmer of hope”, he added. We should move from confrontation to cooperation.

Basit comments come against the backdrop of India’s violation of a delicate ceasefire on the border between the two nuclear-armed countries.

“Our wish is that all disputes particularly Kashmir should be resolved through dialogue”, he said.

In another possibly conciliatory gesture to the Indian government, the Pakistan embassy kept it’s Eid function low-key compared to its traditional fanfare and attendance by the Hurriyat and the media.

The Eid Milan was attended by people from various walks of life including Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jamia Masjid, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ilyas Azmi, journalists and academics.

He told PTI that Kashmir issue has to be addressed if the two countries want to build trust. Besides these two all the separatist leaders of Kashmir led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were present on the occasion. He said it was “high time that New Delhi, Islamabad and Srinagar move together for finding a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue”. The Hurriyat has earlier maintained that the decision to attend the event was not a political reaction but based on its decided policy and principles for resolution of the Kashmir issue.